Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The reason I asked yesterday's question about the moldy sandwich was because we had this happen with a customer a few weeks ago.

He came in, bought a ham sandwich and a drink. About a few hours later, he came back to the store DEMANDING to see a manager. Naturally, I drew the short straw and had to go help him.

I walked up to a man in his early 30's who looked distressed. His brows were furrowed and he was running his hand through his hair multiple times. The sprinkling of dandruff coming off of his head was lightly coating his black jacket and reminded me of the snow we still have here in Cleveland.

"Excuse me, are you the manager?" he said, rushing up to me.

"Yes," I replied, not wanting to talk any more than I should until I knew what the situation was.

He shoved a partially unwrapped sandwich at my face. "Here, take a bite of this," he said.

I pushed the sandwich away. "Please get that out of my face," I said politely.

"See?" he yelled. "You wouldn't eat it either!" He appeared to be hopping around daintily on his feet.

"What is the problem here, sir?" I just wanted to get this over with and not play games with this guy.

Suddenly he became very calm. Almost too calm. It was like someone flicked the off switch on his back. "I bought this sandwich this morning and I went to eat it at lunch and noticed that the wrapper was open and it's moldy. What are you going to do about it?"

He held out the sandwich once again and I grabbed it by the corner of the wrapper. Peering inside the sandwich, I noticed that it was definitely moldy. "You said you noticed that the package was open when you went to eat it?"

"Yes, I think someone opened it on purpose."

"Well, that's possible, we often get kids coming in and opening things--"

He cut me off. "I asked you once and you didn't answer. What are you going to do about it?"

I could tell this guy was going to be an asshole. A big one. "I will give you a refund on this sandwich."

He stared at me in what looked like disbelief. "Are you serious? That's it?"

"Umm,...what else did you want me to do?"

"I'd like something more than my money back. I mean, that moldy thing almost touched my lips!" As he said this he started gagging and I had to resist the urge to laugh. Watching people gag is probably the funniest thing on the planet.

Once he finished his dry heave dance, he straightened himself up and looked right at me. "What else are you going to give me?"

"I'm not going to 'give' you anything except for your money back, like I already said."

"That's unacceptable.I deserve at least a $50 gift card."

"A $50 gift card? No. A refund is the only thing I can do." By this point I had gone to the register and pulled out $1.99 to give back to him.

"I should be better compensated for this. If I had taken a bite, I could have gone to the hospital! Then you'd have to pay me a lot more than what I'm asking for!"

I didn't really give a shit about this customer by now since he was being a dick about it. "Like I said, sir. This is all I can do."

"Fine, I'll be contacting the news, then," he said. He threw the sandwich on the ground and stormed out.

I think it's funny when people say they'll be contacting the news. I hear this all the time, even in other places that I'm shopping at. Seriously. 99% of the time the news station won't give a fuck what you're complaining about unless you are an old person that is sending your life savings of $64,000 to someone in Nigeria.

And on top of all this the guy wanted a $50 gift card. Listen, I've gotten hair in my food at pretty much every restaurant within 10 miles of me and I'm not asking for anything. I simply tell the manager, get my food taken off the bill, and don't go there again until I forgot why I don't go there. Things happen. To me, hair is A LOT grosser than some mold on a sandwich.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Business has been slow lately, but it usually is this time of year. Our regular customers come in as usual, but those are slowly dwindling away, too.

Why?

Because our regular customers are starting to steal.

Theft has been out of control lately, but that was from people we had never seen before. I took pleasure in kicking those assholes out of the store.

When our regular customers steal, that pisses me off. Where's the loyalty? These customers know it's a family business and comment all the time on how they love coming into the store because of the friendly atmosphere, blah blah blah. Now I guess I just won't trust anyone.

We have a redheaded lady that comes in every day. She usually comes in and buys a coffee. Lately she's been buying a doughnut, too.

The other day I was just randomly watching the security cameras (probably because I didn't want to do my work), and I saw this redhead shove a doughnut into her purse. No bag, no tissue, just the doughnut. At first I thought I was just seeing things because who shoves a doughnut in their purse without anything covering it? Is it still enjoyable when it has all the debris and lint from your purse stuck to it?

So I just sat there and watched as she came up to the register to pay for her coffee but not mentioning the doughnut at all.

Normally I'd race right out from the back room and confront this bitch, but Aunt Flow was visiting so my stomach cramps kept me confined to the back room.

My guess is that she's done this before since she so stealthily slid the doughnut into her purse. Right.

I've told everyone I work with and we're all on alert for the next time she does it. And there WILL be a next time. There always is.

It just really pisses me off because this isn't the first time a regular customer has stolen from us lately. It's happening WAY more than it should.